Video: Sampling a brush stroke

Brushstrokes like these, simple Brushstrokes on sketchpads potentially make great sample brushes. What I want to demonstrate here is a different effect that you will get depending on the number of gray values you capture in your sample brush. So I have two versions of this, I have one where I have performed a Threshold Adjustment on the brush and it's all black, or it's nothing, and then we have this one where we have got various different levels of the gray values. So quickly, I will run through how those happened.

In this course, author Nigel French shows how to use textures to create visual interest, heighten realism, and add dimension to Photoshop artwork. The course demonstrates how to apply multiple filters and paint in effects with layer masks, combine textures with images using layer blending modes, use brushes to paint in and accentuate texture, and create brush presets by sampling textures from photographs. The course also shows how to automate the application of textures with actions.

Sampling a brush stroke

Brushstrokes like these, simple Brushstrokes on sketchpads potentially makegreat sample brushes.What I want to demonstrate here is a different effect that you will getdepending on the number of gray values you capture in your sample brush.So I have two versions of this, I have one where I have performed a ThresholdAdjustment on the brush and it's all black, or it's nothing, and then we havethis one where we have got various different levels of the gray values.So quickly, I will run through how those happened.

First of all, the Threshold, start out with a Levels adjustment and then followthat out with a Threshold adjustment, move that one way or the other, dependingon how much black or how much white you want.I want to avoid getting the black specks down in that bottom-left corner.So I am going to pull it back to about there. Okay!Now what I am going to do is I am going to get my Magic Wand tool because Ineed the whites to become a transparent here and I am going to turn myTolerance all the way down, select the white areas and then use those to maskwhat we have there. Ah!I got it the wrong way round in which case I am going to press Command+I orCtrl+I to invert it and then when I am on there then I can sample my brush.

To capture more of the gray values, we just use a much lighter touch withthe Levels adjustment.So I already have those two brushes made and now I am now going to switch overto this document where we can see how they are going to look in practice.So I have a group here of four different pieces of text.I am going to create a layer Mask on that group.Now I will choose my Brush tool and I am going to choose, to begin with what wewill use the Softer Brush and then painting in black, I can just dab on thereand I met an Opacity of 50% which is probably not where I want to be or maybe itis where I want to be.

Let's press the Caps Lock key, so that we don't see that huge cursor and that'sthe effect that I am going to get.Of course if I want it stronger, I am going to now press Command+Z or Ctrl+Z andCommand+O or Ctrl+O, just to back up a few steps to that point, set my Opacityback to 100% and that's what we are going to get at 100% and of course if I canpaint that in more to hide or paint over effectively more of the type.So let me now restore that to how it was.I am going to press Cmd+\.

With white as my Background color which will fill that layer Mask.And I'll now go and choose the harder of my two brushes, and then I can paint onit right there and that's going to give it a much more dramatic effect anddepending on which you want that's going to influence how you make your samplebrush whether you wanted to be all black and white or whether you want tocapture various gray values in that brush.

Find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Photoshop for Designers: Textures .

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Q: In the movie, "Finding, downloading, and installing actions" Nigel
directs me to a page at Adobe.com that no longer exists to download a
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A: Unfortunately, this Photoshop action is no longer available from Adobe's website.

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